Communicating Your Message

Quadrant III of the Empowered Business Matrix©

Since I opened my practice in 2000, I have made some huge business mistakes that motivated me to research the most effective and affordable ways to market and grow my small business. More recently, I have written a book called, "Complementary & Alternative Marketing" and developed a program to teach other health care providers how to successfully position and market their practices.

I was not always interested in business and marketing. Far from it! The truth is, I was forced to develop my skills in these areas -- or else say goodbye to my dream of being an acupuncturist.

My journey from an ‘unconsciously incompetent’ business owner to a ‘consciously competent’ entrepreneur has been a strange and occasionally painful one. I’ll share some of the embarrassing details in a moment. But first, let me ask you a question. Do any of the following statements or challenges describe your current thoughts about yourself and your business?

• You are an introvert and don’t know what to say to promote your business without feeling like a stereotypical salesperson – so you just freeze and don’t say anything.

• You kick yourself for missing out on opportunities to present your services or products because you are too shy and fear you’ll say something wrong.

• You feel it is wrong to ‘sell’ something to someone who is broke – and you often end up just giving your time or products away (at a financial cost to you).

• You fear failure and worry what others would think of you if they knew you were struggling in your business.

• You are frustrated with yourself because you believe you should be able to succeed because other people (who have fewer skills and resources) seem to be doing just fine.

• You need the right teacher who can really deliver the step-by-step instructions you need and make sense out of everything.

• You’ve tried business networking meetings and have had very little results for the amount of time and energy you have invested.

• You’ve talked to many people who always say they are interested in your business but they never call, purchase, or follow through with any action.

• You feel overwhelmed by the amount information you need to learn and the number of things you need to do.

• You constantly question whether what you are doing is what you should be doing – and wonder if you’re missing something.

• You are disappointed that you tried something that was supposed to be ‘foolproof’ and it didn’t work for you.

• You do not have enough time in the day to do everything that needs to get done. Even when you work harder and longer it feels like you have less to show for it.

• You are tired, worn out and close to giving up.

• You feel alone and want the support of a group that you can leverage off of so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

• You don’t have enough money to invest in your marketing.

• You are discouraged with the whole process and wonder if you’ll ever understand enough Internet technology to make your business viable.

• You want a personal coach to walk you through the steps of building your business but you feel like you can’t afford to pay for one.

• You struggle to see the big picture and wonder why you should spend so much time on seemingly endless details.

• You are stuck and at a point where you need to hire someone to help you, but don’t know where to go to find an affordable and qualified assistant.

This is the only statement you need to remember about yourself right now:

• You dream of a time when everything will ‘click’ and you will finally be able to hold your head up high, feel proud and sleep soundly at night knowing you have a successful career and business that will support you and your family for the rest of your life.

When I first started my acupuncture practice, I did not know anything about business. Like most educational programs that provide you with the training to perform your skills and hang out your shingle, my acupuncture program did not prepare me to run a business. Honestly, I was happy to be spared with BORING business classes, because all I wanted to do was heal the world!

I admit it. I was naïve. I didn’t even realize that I needed to develop my business skills and invest in training.

This taught me an important lesson. Like me, most people don’t know what they don’t know. And to make it a bit worse, they think what they DO know, is all they need to know.

As you can see, that was my problem.

Way back then when I was opening my business I thought having a good heart was all I needed and the Universe would just naturally reward me. Seriously, I had that Field of Dreams philosophy of business. You know, the one that goes, “if you build it, they will come”.

So I poured my heart and soul into opening my clinic and fully expected to have a line of people out my door in a very short time. I was thinking it might take a few weeks, or a few months at most.

I had no idea that I didn’t know how many business skills were important for me to build and grow a successful practice.

As I have talked with hundreds if not thousands of service based business owners over the years, I have learned that we all start out pretty much in the same boat: thinking we know enough to succeed. And what we don’t know we will make up for with our passion and good heart.

The sad thing is many enthusiastic practitioners (realtors, lawyers, therapists, accountants, and many service based business owners) get sunk before they realize they’re taking on water.

I experienced this firsthand. About 5 years into my practice I hit some unexpected financial bumps (including a surprise $17,000 tax bill) that almost ended my acupuncture business.

It scared me to stare failure in the face. It also opened my eyes and made me very determined! I set out on a mission to find a way to secure my acupuncture career AND my financial future. I decided then and there that I was going to learn everything I could about business, marketing, managing my finances, and building multiple streams of income.

I had heard that the Internet was the most powerful and affordable way to advertise and when I investigated the Internet as a means to promote my business, I was intrigued, but cautious.

Internet stuff felt out of my league. I could email, research, and shop online. That was about the extent of my Internet “skills”. I tackled the task of building a website for my acupuncture practice and was fortunate to have a step-by-step program that also included steps on HOW to position my business and generate revenue through my website.

Less than 7 months after I started my website, I had earned back my initial investment in the website building program I was using. And I had the potential to earn LOTS more. I was ecstatic. This stuff really worked!

I knew I had found an important piece of the puzzle. But I also knew I had a lot to learn.

I joined a marketing team to get top notch training on how to use the Internet. It was there that I met (via the internet classes) Alicia Bausley, a successful self-employed business owner an expert in sales.

Unlike Alicia, I felt ‘sales training’ was unnecessary and even inappropriate for a health care practitioner. I thought acupuncturists were not sales people and therefore did not need to know selling strategies or techniques. Moreover, I considered salespeople to be after one thing and one thing only… your money. Since I cared more about helping people than making money, I avoided sales training and focused entirely on marketing.

Remember when I said “most people don’t know what they don’t know”? Well, here’s another example of me not knowing that I needed to develop my sales skills in order to succeed at marketing! The truth is, learning marketing without understanding and mastering sales is wasted effort.

Alicia and I have been able to combine our skills, interests and experiences to co-author books, develop marketing and sales training courses, and empower other small business owners to embrace their entrepreneurial spirit.

The answer to building a sustainable and profitable business is to implement affordable, effective, and automated ways to position and market your business so that YOU can close on sales.

We have already shown you two important aspects in this process:

Quadrant I: Comprehending your customers

Quadrant II: Constructing your business

Quadrant III: Communicate Your Message

We are all in business, right? If you deliver a message and leave out specific directions telling your prospects exactly what to do to take advantage of your products or skills (e.g. how to buy them), then you are not alone, because ninety percent of small business owners make this mistake!

To avoid this mistake and communicate effectively through your marketing messages to your prospects you must have:

• A clear message delivered in multiple formats. Express your unique ‘voice’ in a way connects you to your prospects. (Hint: Be yourself!)

• Specific directions describing exactly what to do next. Develop your skills in consultative selling, direct response marketing and active listening. (Hint: Take the complete Secrets To Selling online training course!)

• Access to your target audience. You need to know who your potential customers are, what they need and where they ‘hang out’. (Hint: Review Quadrant I: Comprehending Your Customer!)

Webster’s Dictionary defines communication as, “a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior”.

Obviously, we are using words (written and spoken) to communicate with our potential customers. Or are we?

Research shows that only 7% of communication occurs through the WORDS we say. While 38% comes from the TONE of our voice, and a whopping 55% comes from BODY LANGUAGE, facial expressions, and a myriad of other non-verbal cues. Wow!

So how do you communicate effectively when you are limited to typing words on a page?

How does it affect your ability to close on sales when your primary form of interaction with your customers is over the phone or through written emails?

How should you adjust your advertising when you are using flyers, print ads or the Internet?

Is only a meager 7% of what you are saying actually getting absorbed by your prospects?

Actually it is probably less than that! That is, unless you know HOW to communicate successfully through the phone, Internet, teleseminars, and using other tools where non-verbal cues are not available.

Empowered Business Matrix© Marketing and Sales Map

For many business owners, marketing and selling are foreign territories. Whenever you are in an unknown place, you can navigate much better if you can orient yourself. You have to see where you are relative to something familiar in order to gain perspective.

Often times when you are focused on the details of building a business, you forget where you are in the big picture and why what you are doing is so important. If you ever feel that way, refer back to your map so you can see where you are, how far you’ve come, and where you are headed.

There are four steps in the Communication Quadrant. It does not matter which step you accomplish first. The secret to communicating your message effectively is to do them all and interconnect them. (I’ll explain how to do that later.)

1. Start Here --> Declare your internet platform

2. Connect with your customers

3. Interact on autopilot

4. Advertise your business

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